Opinion
Comment: Hester will have to fight to hold on to Citizens
STEPHEN Hester has continually stated he doesn’t want to sell US business Citizens Financial Group, but the Royal Bank of Scotland boss must wonder if anyone is listening or whether he will have the last say.
Comment: From Russia with love, and a healthy profit
BOB Dudley has been looking for some good news ever since he took over the reins at BP in the wake of the disastrous Gulf of Mexico spill. Yesterday he got some.
Bill Jamieson: Mini marvels are the place to put your cash
FALLING inflation, reductions in unemployment at the UK level, rising household incomes, a pick-up in retail sales, even an improvement in the public finances – if the economy has now crawled out of recession, as gross domestic product (GDP) figures are expected to show this week, should investors now buy into recovery?
1 comment
Comment: Casino Royal is no more fallible than retail banks
TWO steps forward, one step back. Or is it the other way around? In the banking world nobody knows for sure whether progress is being made or not.
Comment: City could prove main victim of EU bank rules
THIS week’s EU banking summit was a showdown between Europe’s pro-growth socialist group, led by France’s President Hollande, and Europe’s conservative German paymasters, led by Chancellor Angel Merkel.
Comment: Battle must be won to make high streets work
HIGH street stores are closing at the rate of one a day, according to research from PWC and the Scottish Government has ordered an inquiry led by the architect Malcolm Fraser.
Comment: Damning indictment of a watchdog that didn’t bark
IT SHOULD not have been necessary for a committee of MPs to force Britain’s chief regulator to publish details of its investigation into the near-collapse of RBS.
Comment: RBS takes a major step on road to full recovery
ROYAL Bank of Scotland will clear a crucial hurdle in its recovery today when it exits the Asset Protection Scheme.
2 comments
Comment: Regulators must follow through on tough talk
IT’s not quite time to say goodbye to the much-maligned Financial Services Authority, but the welcome mat is being laid out for its successors, which promise to be better regulators.
Comment: Branson sitting pretty but what about RBS staff?
Sir Richard Branson does not enjoy the same level of popularity in certain business circles as he does among the wider populace, but just now he seems to be the man that everyone is turning to.
Bill Jamieson: When caution could be next market bubble
ON IT goes, defying all warnings of a bubble in the making and even a genteel correction: the investor love affair with bonds and bond market funds shows no sign of cooling.
1 comment
Comment: Setback for Hester as road to recovery gets bumpier
STEPHEN Hester must feel like a child learning to ride a bicycle. Just when he’s got a bit of momentum he suffers a wobble and falls off.
Summing up: We need alternatives to payday loans
THAT the Wonga brand is to adorn the mono shirts of Newcastle Football Club seems apt, such is the black and white nature of the storm over payday lenders.
1 comment
Bill Jamieson: Shovel-ready projects may dig us into a hole
SHOVEL-ready projects: when it comes to popularity these days they are up there with Adele, supermarket ready-meals and designer stubble.
2 comments
Comment: Centrica’s ‘greed’ should be put in perspective
PREDICTABLY, Centrica is being given a media bashing for putting up consumer prices by 6 per cent. However, like all capital-intensive energy companies, Centrica’s profit margin is piddling.
3 comments
Comment: Swann’s unlikely to be on the sidelines for long
KATE Swann’s decision to step down from WH Smith is a bit of a setback for those campaigning to get more women in Britain’s boardrooms, although it looks like she will be back running a venture of some sort.
Comment: EADS merger collapse leaves BAE vulnerable
THE collapse of the merger of BAE Systems and Airbus manufacturer EADS should come as little surprise given the enormous difficulties in finding political agreement.
Comment: Billions in financial stimulus just to stand still
WITH EACH bit of fragile UK economic data that appears, the likelihood grows that the Bank of England will push the button next month on more bond-buying from the banks via its quantitative easing (QE) programme.
Comment: Tucker has the City’s – and bookies’ – backing
AND then there were two. At least it looks that way in terms of the shortlist for the position of governor of the Bank of England.
Farming comment: Let’s not forget: practical skills make the industry thrive
Last Thursday night, I was invited to a dinner celebrating the Scottish Agricultural College’s takeover of the three other land-based colleges in Scotland; thus forming the Scottish Rural University College, or SRUC.
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Bill Jamieson: Ministers in dunce’s caps on financial schooling
Five years after the global financial crash and its dramatic warning on the dangers of debt, we are little nearer to stepping up basic financial education where it matters – in schools and classrooms across the country.
Bill Jamieson: Housing standstill points to more QE
AN EPIC David versus Goliath battle now rages across the UK economy. It is a battle between the forces of nascent recovery, evident in the rallies of consumer confidence and spending on the one hand, and the crushing force of debt deleveraging on the other. What is it going to take for those tentative recovery forces to prevail?
3 comments
Comment: Politics plays its hand in dogfight over defence deal
IF DAVID Cameron really wants to show that he will stand up for British interests in Europe then the proposed merger between BAE Systems and EADS presents him with the perfect opportunity.
2 comments
Comment: Chinese ‘miracle’ invokes shades of Japan
WHENEVER I hear prophecies that China will eclipse America and dominate the global economy of the 21st century, I have only one word to say: Japan.
1 comment
Comment: Scottish car sales put Europeans in the shade
IF THE sales of new cars is an indicator of the health of the economy then things are surely looking up. More than 36,000 motors rolled out of Scottish showrooms last month, marking a 15.3 per cent rise on a year earlier.
Comment: First things first after rail franchise debacle
FIRSTGROUP chief executive Tim O’Toole spends half his week back home in Pennsylvania, but he must be wondering if it is time to change his work routine by spending more, or perhaps less, time in the UK.
Comment: Investment shows long–term spirits are high
THE surge in whisky sales worldwide has been a phenomenon that has helped underpin Scottish manufacturing. Latest figures, however, show sales have flattened year on year, perhaps an indication that they have peaked.
Comment: Homing in on a chance to make a real difference
CONJURING money out of fresh air is nothing new – the prestidigitators at the Bank of England will have created £375 billion through the magic of quantitative easing by the end of next month – and the UK government hopes to make billions more next year by selling off the airwaves for the next generation of mobile phones.
Bill Jamieson: We’re not going to dig ourselves out of a hole
IT HAS always struck me as odd that our views about what is right and wrong about our personal financial behaviour should be suspended when we come to consider public or government behaviour.
Comment: New rural education power takes to the European stage
THIS morning, some 8,000 students and 1,500 staff from Barony, Elmwood and Oatridge colleges and the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) will become Scotland’s Rural College or, when its ambitions are fulfilled, Scotland’s Rural University College (SRUC).
Bill Jamieson: Green shoots give reasons for cheer
IT HAS been a great week for green shoots. If you didn’t believe that we may be past the worst and that the economy is on the turn, last week brought not one but four encouraging pointers.
1 comment
Comment: Eurozone worries serve to blight Osborne’s good week
GEORGE Osborne will have found some solace in the latest dispatch from ratings agency Fitch. Not only did Friday’s report reaffirm Britain’s much-cherished AAA credit rating, the agency cut the Chancellor some slack on the austerity front by not calling for additional cost-cutting measures.
Jeff Salway: Less mis-selling may mean more mis-buying
AN 80-YEAR-OLD fed up of watching her savings dwindle asks her bank how she can get more income from her money without risking any losses. The bank talks her into taking out an investment bond that ties her money up for five years and exposes her to investment risk. Mis-selling or mis-buying? The former, clearly.
Comment: French exceptionalism may have run out of time
YOURS truly is on holiday in the French countryside, a little west of Toulouse. This is the land of foie gras, the Three Musketeers, bullfighting, and EADS/Airbus.
Comment: Bankers have crossed – yet another – Rubicon
THE TIME when the public will trust the banks again looks further away than ever. The Libor-rigging scandal, with Barclays already fined and Royal Bank of Scotland in the cross-hairs of regulators, has taken ethical distaste and contempt for the industry to new depths.
4 comments
Comment: Temperatures on the rise in Greece and Spain
DAVID Cameron promised to use his appearance on a US late-night talk show to “bang the drum” for British business and encourage more Americans to spend their dollars over here, but he risks being drowned out by the drumbeats emanating from Greece and Spain.
Martin Flanagan: Hester’s close to fulfilling his own prophecy
ROYAL Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester’s claim at a London banking conference that the group is “nearing the point of becoming a recovered bank” looks more than wishful thinking.
Comment: White refuses to slake City thirst for bid news
SOFT drinks group AG Barr had a problem yesterday. The Irn-Bru maker wanted to talk about its resilient half-time trading performance amid the headwinds of strong consumer caution and torrid summer weather.
- Celtic shareholders urge club to drop joint commercial deals with Rangers
- Earthquake that killed nine people in southern Spain was ‘man-made’
- Charles Green apologises to fans for revealing death threats
- Scottish independence: SNP reveal no legal advice sought over EU entry
- Scottish independence: Row over SNP bid to ‘rig’ cash limits for referendum
- SNP party conference: ‘We’re ruled by a bunch of Snootys,’ says Alex Salmond
- ‘Who dares wins’: Cheers and boos as SNP votes to end opposition to Nato
- Scottish independence: SNP reveal no legal advice sought over EU entry
- Scottish independence: Row over SNP bid to ‘rig’ cash limits for referendum
- Charles Green says path now cleared for Mike Ashley to buy stake in Rangers
- Scottish Government urged to review smoking ban
- Abercrombie & Fitch: The brand might soon open a store in Glasgow, but does its 'heritage' fit the city?
- Edinburgh trams: £100m left in budget as council pushes for faster progress
- Fleet grounded after helicopter ditches in North Sea
- Earthquake that killed nine people in southern Spain was ‘man-made’
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Weather for Edinburgh
Wednesday 24 October 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
